High Point bullying lawsuit dismissed

A $2 million bullying lawsuit that put a black eye on High Point Regional High School was dismissed Monday, nearly two years after it was filed.

The suit, filed in February 2012, claimed that a student at the high school was the target of a three-year bullying campaign at the hands of students and a parent while the school district stood by without acting. The suit initially named High Point, the Board of Education, and several of its teachers and administrators, but all of these defendants were dismissed from the lawsuit early in the case.

On Monday in state Superior Court in Newton before Judge Edward Gannon, the remaining defendant — the student accused of coordinating the campaign of harassment — was also dismissed after the plaintiff agreed to drop the suit. The defendant, in turn, agreed to drop a counterclaim.

George Daggett, the defendant’s Sparta-based attorney, said the lawsuit was “frivolous” from the beginning and it should have never been filed.

“(The lawsuit) gave High Point a bad name, and it was just outrageously irresponsible,” Daggett said.

The plaintiff’s Tenafly-based attorney, Tim Weeden, said the goal of the suit was to stop the bullying, which he said it did.

“It was never about the money,” Weeden said. “It was always about taking a stand.”

The suit was seeking $1 million from the alleged bully, her mother and four other students for defamation and emotional distress. Another $1 million was being sought from the school district and several of its employees for ignoring pleas to the administration for the bullying to stop.

“It was not a happy day for High Point because a lot of people had allegations made against them that didn’t deserve it,” Daggett said.

Weeden said that as soon as the lawsuit was filed, High Point officials acted quickly to resolve the situation and were therefore dropped from the case early on. He said it is also very difficult to prove liability against a school board.

“The lawsuit was the last choice,” Weeden said. “The primary goal was to get the bullying to stop.”

The suit alleged that a female student was subjected to years of abuse on Facebook and verbally at school after she was accused of “talking to a boy that the (defendant) liked.” The names of the students, who were minors at the time, are being withheld by the New Jersey Herald.

The suit said that the alleged bully “recruited” other students to create “false accusations, rumors and lies about (the plaintiff).” The alleged bully’s mother became involved in the bullying and called the victim’s mother at home and called the victim a derogatory name, the suit said.

Daggett said the real victim in the case was his client who subsequently had to change schools because of the problems.

The Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Act (HIB), passed in New Jersey in November 2011, set strict guidelines for school districts in responding to any reported incident.

The state began including incidents that are categorized under the HIB law in the 2010-11 State of New Jersey Department of Education’s Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System report. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the law went into affect.

Weeden said his client has moved on from the bullying.

“The victim, my client, has moved onto college and on to greener pastures,” Weeden said. “We weren’t seeking to push a lawsuit to get money from people who don’t have it.”

Paul Derin, High Point Board of Education president, said he hopes those involved can “move on in a healthy way.”